Mount Clemens Race Track
| Location | Mt. Clemens, Michigan |
|---|---|
| Opened | 1951 |
| Surface | Asphalt |
| Length | 0.5 mi (0.80 km) |
| Turns | 4 |
Mount Clemens Race Track was located on a 55-acre site along North River Road near the I-94 freeway in Mount Clemens, Michigan, in suburban Detroit and opened on September 3, 1951, with 5,000 fans in attendance.[1]. Grandstand seating 5,500 featured an adjacent picnic and playground area, and the grounds included half-mile, quarter-mile ovals and a figure-eight.[1][2]
Notable drivers included Joy Fair, a prolific winner on short-tracks in the Midwest,[3] Canadian driver Junior Hanley,[4] NASCAR driver Tracy Leslie,[5] and NASCAR legend Dick Trickle, [6][7] and even featured performances from the Tommy Bartlett Show, an acrobatic water skiing show that performed on a lagoon inside the track.[1]
Owners placed the race track on the market in 1985, and sold it to the city of Mount Clemens in March, 1986. The track equipment was sold at auction the next month and Mount Clemens Race Track ended its 36-year history.[1][8][9]. The city of Mount Clemens then sold the race track property in 1987 to Gebran Anton and Riverside Associates, and was converted to use for the Gibraltar Trade Center, which opened in 1990.[10]
External links
References
- ^ a b c d https://www.mtclib.org/DocumentCenter/View/429/race-track
- ^ "Mount Clemens Race Track, 1967 article". August 24, 1967. p. 25 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Joy Fair, champion driver at MCRT, dies". December 10, 2011.
- ^ "Mount Clemens 1981 – David Allio • Racing Photography Archives". June 25, 2021.
- ^ "Michigan Motor Sports Hall of Fame - Leslie, Tracy 2015". www.mmshof.org.
- ^ "July 15, 1985: Car-race track draws fans – when sun shines". Crain's Detroit Business. July 12, 2015.
- ^ "Mount Clemens Speedway - The Third Turn". www.thethirdturn.com.
- ^ "Mt. Clemens Race Track, Puscas column, 1983". May 4, 1983. p. 49 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "Mt. Clemens Race Track, 1984". August 2, 1984. p. 123 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ https://www.mtclib.org/DocumentCenter/View/429/race-track#:~:text=The%20land%20was%20an%20old,erected%20in%201916%20by%20the